


Etched On the Stone of My Heart

by little_abyss



Series: Doom Upon All The World [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Accidental Death, Angst, Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Dalish life, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Original Character Death(s), Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-23 13:45:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11991048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/little_abyss/pseuds/little_abyss
Summary: Two years before the Conclave, in the foothills of the mountains to the north of Ostwick, Frey Lavellan and his lover Arteth are hunting for game.A fill for the Sadness Appreciation Society prompt of the week: "But you promised!" in five hundred words or less.





	Etched On the Stone of My Heart

Her soft, pink lips open; she tries to speak and coughs blood into his face instead.  “‘Teth,” Frey says, desperate, “Arteth! Sathan, ar elana…I’ll get help, please, just… just hang on.”

There is no help to be had.  They are here alone, two days from the clan aravels.  Hunters often have to range far these days; the clan is large and there are not enough hunters now to feed the hungry mouths.  Frey had heard someone mutter that they may well be stealing crops from shemlen before the month was out; he had grit his teeth and growled that he would not let that happen.  But this was the wages of it; a freak accident, and the only person he holds dear in the world dying in his arms.

Tears clouding his vision.  He brushes them impatiently aside and compresses the wound harder, the thick cloth already saturated with blood.  Arteth, his love, she shouldn’t have been here -- she is no hunter, she had no idea... he should have been firmer, he should have told her  _ no _ .  But he could never tell her that.  

Arteth smiles up at him, blood on her teeth.  “Ma te’elan halani,” she says softly.  Her grip on his jerkin relaxes; her eyes lose focus.  Her chest hitches once, twice, then moves no more.

 

Frey watches, appalled.  He stares at her face, scarcely breathing, complete disbelief clutching at his lungs, tightening his throat. The forest shifts around them, wind in the high treetops as the day draws to a close.  “But you promised,” he breathes, then covers his mouth, aghast at the sound of his voice in the silence of the world.  “Ma dirtha’varen.  ‘Teth…  _ ‘Teth _ .”  Her name tastes like ash in his mouth and without thinking he drives his fist hard into the turf next to her head, “ _ Ma dirtha’varen!” _ he screams into the dead woman’s face, oblivious to the tears which fall onto her skin.  A flock of birds takes fright at the sudden noise and explode out of the trees, shrieking.  Frey doesn’t hear them.  “‘Teth,” he moans, and moves his bloodsoaked hand off the cloth on her stomach to caress her face.  “Ma ane ina’lan’ehn.  I love you, ar lath ma, Arteth, ar julath ma bellanaris… but you promised me, vhenan… you said we’d… you said... forever.”  

He chokes, sobs; a  raking, broken sound.  “Arteth,” Frey cries, and in his grief pulls her body up, clinging to it, kissing her face, her throat, her soft pink mouth slack against his, the taste of her blood on his lips, her weight more than sleeping.  

 

The nights are cold in the foothills of the Vimmarks.  But he stays with her all that night, holding her body close to his.  And in the morning, when he raises his bloodshot eyes to the light which greys the horizon, he feels resolved.  One way or another, he will leave clan Lavellan.  One way or another, he will have his revenge.  

**Author's Note:**

> There is a lot of elvehn in this -- my eternal gratitude to the people who developed the [DAI Elvehn Translator](https://lingojam.com/ElvenDAI) which you can find at the link. Any errors in the translation are, of course, my own, but here's what I was intending with the phrases:  
> "Sathan, ar elana..." : "Please, I have to..."  
> "Ma te’elan halani" : "You cannot help me"  
> "Ma dirtha’varen." : "You promised."  
> "Ma ane ina’lan’ehn." : "You are so beautiful."  
> "Ar lath ma, Arteth, ar julath ma bellanaris" : "I love you, Artheth, I'll love you forever"
> 
> This is only the beginning of Frey's story. As such, although I wrote this for a Sadness Appreciation Society Weekly prompt, I've included it in the series which will (eventually) have the larger story of Frey's time with the Inquisition in it.


End file.
